Shut Up and Watch This

As it turns out, this week’s pick is not a hardboiled modern noir set on a train, as Ashley expected. Instead Dave’s pick, Wong Kar-wai’s CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994), features the stories of two lovelorn policemen as they try to move on from their past relationships. Equal parts sweet and quirky with a good mix of interesting camera work, a pretty killer soundtrack, and thirty cans of pineapple, Chun...

This week Ashley’s pick is Ron Howard’s 1989 ensemble comedy/drama PARENTHOOD . Supported by some fine performances by the likes of Dianne Wiest, Steve Martin, and even Keanu Reeves, this film does a pretty good job of representing the ups and downs of parenthood from the viewpoint of a large, multigenerational family. Ashley is pleasantly surprised that this childhood favorite seems to stand the...

A US government agent (Cary Grant), the daughter of a convicted spy (Ingrid Bergman), and a scheming Nazi in Brazil (Claude Rains). Add a whole lot of repressed emotions and you have the makings of this love-triangle thriller, Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 masterpiece NOTORIOUS . Ingrid Bergman is luminous as Alicia, a patriot who risks everything for love and country. Cary Grant as Dev is…..kind of a d...

This week we have committed false report; moreover, we have spoken untruths, secondarily, we are slanders; sixth and lastly we have belied a lady; thirdly, we have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, we are lying knaves. All this is true, except the lady bit, as we did not watch Hands on a Hardbody as promised. Instead we watched Joss Whedon’s adaptation of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING . This is A...

People are complicated, at once noble and cowardly. We laugh at inappropriate times and cry over morning tea; find beauty and terror in the wind and rain. And somehow Akira Kurosawa captures all of this humanness in a film that is somehow both epic and intimate all at once. That’s right, this week we tackle Kurosawa’s 1954 film  SEVEN SAMURAI . This film shaped Dave’s understanding of cinema and p...

Are there times in your life when you’re more open to a particular show or movie? We find out when we revisit a series that Dave just couldn’t get into the first time Ashley brought it up, long before they ever started dating. PARTY DOWN was Rob Thomas’s (the writer-director, not the singer of “Smooth”) follow-up to VERONICA MARS . The series follows Adam Scott as a washed-up actor and his co-work...

This week we’re talking Slartibartfast, Zaphod Beeblebrox, and Ford Prefect. No, we aren’t advertising for some weird diet shake, an odd new laundry detergent, or a car that ceased production in 1961…it’s just a few of the interestingly named characters from the 1981 BBC TV adaptation of THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY . Ashley, a huge fan of the book series, wonders if one needs a live actio...

Dave and I saw a truly outstanding film this weekend, and although it breaks the rules for our podcast, we really wanted to talk about it. The film was ROMA . Director Alfonso Cuarón takes us into his childhood in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City. Told from the perspective of the beloved nanny who helped raise him and his siblings, this film is gorgeous from first shot to last, and it...

It seems everything gets a gritty remake these days, but did LM Montgomery’s classic book series ANNE OF GREEN GABLES really need the Batman Begins treatment? Disapproving of the recent remakes, this week Dave and Ashley review the original, Kevin Sullivan’s 1985 adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (yes we realize there is a 1934 film as well). Ashley tries and (perhaps) fails to be somewhat object...

It’s a Bergman bonanza as Dave and Ashley review FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982). This portrait of a large family seen through the eyes of young Alexander is both joyful and devastating. Ashley is drawn in by the powerful and grounded female characters, and the wonderful, terrible portrayals of characters coping (or not) with their own mortality. Dave finds some connection to his past, and is inspired...

A listener poll of Ashley’s Christmas related picks decided our next film. By a landslide listeners chose THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS , an actual Christmas/Halloween classic, over some lesser known and less well respected films ( MIXED NUTS has a 10% Rotten Tomatoes rating). Dave is on the record as having complicated feelings about Tim Burton films. And Ashley was a little hesitant to revisit...

A stranger walks into a small town cafe somewhere in the California desert and proceeds to change the lives of everyone connected to said cafe. Interesting how so many American stories start in nearly the same way and end up in very different places. This week we’re talking about BAGDAD CAFE (1987), a charming indie by German director Percy Adlon. This movie has Dave nostalgic for the Mojave Deser...

We’re finishing off a very eventful October by reviewing John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic HALLOWEEN …on Halloween! Dave has somehow never seen this film due to his general disdain for the dead teenager/slasher genre. Ashley thinks he’ll love this homage to Hitchcock’s genre-defining PSYCHO , or at least enjoy watching her jump a foot and a half off the couch with every jump scare. So let’s wat...

October’s here and we, like the rest of the western world, have gone into spooky mode. This week we're talking about obscure psychological thriller,  DON’T LOOK NOW (1973) directed by Nicolas Roeg. A portrait of grief with a bit of the supernatural mixed in, Dave’s pick stars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as a couple coping with the loss of their young daughter.  A fan of late 60s and 70s p...

As an actor, how does one follow a performance in a record breaking blockbuster like JURASSIC PARK? If one is Laura Dern, you star in a controversial indie film by a first-time director about the abortion debate, of course. This week it’s her movie, her choice as we discuss Ashley’s pick, dark comedy CITIZEN RUTH (1996) by Alexander Payne. Ashley and Dave marvel at Laura Dern’s ability to render a...

Gather your gas cans, canteens and studded leather chaps, this week we go traveling through a post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland with a very unlucky but ultimately heroic man named Max. On this episode we are watching not one, but two films from the Max Max series, namely 1981’s THE ROAD WARRIOR (MAD MAX 2) and MAD MAX: BEYOND THUNDERDOME (1985). Dave saw Thunderdome when he was 14 and has been...

This week Ashley introduces Dave to the delightful silliness of Steve Martin and THE JERK , a movie that was not only one of her dad’s favorite comedies, but also a constant source of quotes and in-jokes around the house when she was growing up. Will Dave be able to look past some of the more problematic aspects of this movie to see the pathos in this madcap story about the rise and fall of simple...

This week Dave and Ashley discuss THE REMAINS OF THE DAY , based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel about the life and regrets of Stevens (Anthony Hopkins), dutiful butler of Darlington Hall, who values housekeeper Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson) a great deal. Dave discusses some of his own regrets, which may extend to selecting a film for the show that no longer resonates the way it once did. Curious thing, l...

When Ashley was 26 years, 51 weeks, 3 days, 6 hours and 26 minutes old she discovered a delightfully dark new television series. Ten years, 36 weeks, 6 days, 4 hours and 2 minutes later, after a chance encounter in the DVD section of a used-book store, Ashley shared this same series with her new beau. Dave and Ashley continue to explore cult TV with Ashley’s pick, psychedelic twee fantasy, PUSHING...

This week Dave and Ashley wander into a brave new world: cult TV. First up is Dave’s pick, psychedelic/spy/sci-fi classic THE PRISONER (1967-1968). This genre-defying series about a kidnapped former spy (Patrick McGoohan), who awakens in a seemingly idyllic coastal enclave called The Village, has Ashley looking for information, information, information. Dave counters with “that would be telling,”...

It’s nearly Summer, and you know what that means….superhero movies. So many superhero movies... This week Dave and Ashley take on the Disney industrial complex in the form of Ashley’s pick 2004 Pixar film THE INCREDIBLES . Listen as Dave confronts his aversion to all things superhero, and Ashley geeks out over the mid-century production design. Does THE INCREDIBLES soar above the competition to be...

This week Dave and Ashley may have stumbled on a previously unknown life defining event. Did you come of age before Tarantino or after Tarantino? Dave was a film student at UCSD when his pick, cinematic earthquake RESERVOIR DOGS was released. Ashley was…..in middle school. There’s a lot to unpack here as Dave describes how shocking this film was when he saw it in the theater, and Ashley reveals th...

Find out what happens when Elrond the Elf King (Hugo Weaving), a British Gangster (Terence Stamp), and that guy from MEMENTO (Guy Pearce) take a drag show on the road across the Australian desert in a ramshackle bus. We’re talking great characters, small towns, and nordic pop music when we cover Ashley’s pick, PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT . This 1994 Australian cult film has great performances,...

On this week’s very special episode of Shut Up and Watch This, differing viewpoints lead to one of our most interesting, and certainly longest, discussions. Dave’s pick is NAKED , a 1993 film by Mike Leigh, a favorite director of both Dave and Ashley. Does Dave accurately express what this film meant to a young man out in the world for the first time? Will Ashley be able to look past her visceral...

Ashley and Dave are proud to review COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER , the story of country singer Loretta Lynn (Sissy Spacek). Along the way, they confront Dave's country music blind spot and argue over the correct pronunciation of the word "biopic." Subscribe in  iTunes  or  Android Follow us on  Facebook Visit our site:  shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to  shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please...